...The Right Call...

Emotion Plays a Key Role in the Customer Experience

You know that moment in the movie where the unexpected emotional moment occurs and tears of joy flow in the audience. The scene tugs at your heart string. Why, because everything came together in the production. Acting, directing, writing…. Everything reaches that climactic point through lots of coordination and coaching. No, the director didn’t just tell the actors, “go out there and make ‘em cry. Same with customer satisfaction. We coach to behaviors, not results. The behavior of the actors result in the crying (or laughing or jump out your seat scare). The Director coaches the behavior. In a call center, supervisors take on the Director role and Customer Service Reps are the actors. Satisfaction is measured by CSAT scores and other quality metrics, which are the emotional responses. So our coaches/supervisors seek to bring out the best behaviors in our CSRs. They don’t just say, “Get five great CSAT scores today”, to a rep. That’s just like a director yelling “make ‘em cry!!”. Instead, great supervisors spend time on communication skills. Like, great listening techniques, such as, “acknowledge the customer’s request by repeating key words”. They coach proper etiquette and staying professional with “please” and “thank you” and less “huh” and “yep”. Too often, call center supervisors manage to the numbers and reward based on outcomes (results). By doing so, they simply direct the play after the applause. Great call center management is focused on forward thinking actions and coaching for great conversations, accurate reading of customer needs and quick and clear critical thinking. Then you get great results. That’s the way to make ‘em cry (in a good way).

Here’s an update on our sales and marketing activities. Over three months, we are attending five major conferences that have connections with call center services. At these conferences we have a booth for attendees to drop by, we advertise in their programs and we even presented at one conference.

Our focus is on government related call center needs – just like what we are doing for NYC Transit Authority and Community Colleges of Chicago. Each of these conferences have or should provide us with names of private companies or public entities that outsource call center requirements. Once we establish that they need our services, they become a “suspect”.

As we learn more about their needs and they become interested in talking to US, they become a prospect. In our history of building long term relationships, the prospecting cycle takes a long time and includes lots of personal visits, proposal writing, negotiations and contracts. Once we sign a contract, the prospect becomes a client.

From the five conferences mentioned, we estimate about fifty suspects will be identified. From those fifty about 15 will become prospects. Over the next two years, through lots of “cultivation” efforts, hopefully, five will become clients. Those five clients will mean more jobs at GCS and more career opportunities.

So keep your fingers crossed and look for more updates on how we’re advancing suspects to clients in the near future.

BTW, a senior representative from the MTA visited our booth at the APTA conference and was VERY complimentary of your Paratransit call center service.

…and so do adults. Back in the 1960’s, Art Linkletter had a variety show that included interviews with children. When a child said something unexpected, Linkletter would say his then famous line – Kids say the darndest things. We’re not sure if “darndest” was or is a word, but everybody understood.

One of our current projects is focused on helping the college be more productive with their student services. Particularly, we’re to improve their contact center productivity with better processes and upgraded technology.

While listening to a phone conversation between a college advisor and a potential student, the caller asked if a driver’s license was necessary to take a course in limo driving. Without hesitation, the advisor said “yes, you have to have a driver’s license to take the course”. So, it’s not just kids who say the darndest things.

Great customer service includes brushing aside obvious errors in speech, understanding the context and moving forward in helping the customer. We are like a great concierge service that helps tourists. The tourist might get confused or be slow to understand directions, but the concierge is patient and makes sure the tourist gets the information correct. Same is true for our customer service call centers, our college advisors, our mobility sales team and our visa service professionals, etc.

We must say the right thing, give the right instructions, but most importantly, make sure the customer understands the instructions. If we get it right, everything is fine. If we get it wrong, it might sound like the darndest thing.

One of the main principles at GCS is to provide opportunities to those who want them. It is our goal for all associates to enjoy working at GCS and to find it makes their lives better.

That’s where our Management Candidate Program comes in. This program was started over twenty years ago and includes dozens of learning modules designed to develop and hone the skills necessary to become a manager in the contact center advisory services field.

Since the program’s beginning, hundreds of GCS employees have applied, been chosen, completed and received certification in this program. The Management Candidate Program is well established in our contact centers and we are pleased to see the steady stream of internal promotions as a result. Our clients are even involved in the approval of each candidate before the promotion to management can take effect. For the past 20 years, our track record of approvals has been excellent.

Applying for the Management Candidate Program is the first step toward reaching the goal of becoming a manager here at GCS and a great way to enjoy a long and prosperous career with us. At GCS, we want to help make every team member’s life better by giving them the opportunities they need to succeed.

Every year, the Puerto Rican Day parade and celebration causes many streets and pathways leading to our GCS offices to close. To avoid problems in today’s routine, it is important to look out for those past disturbances caused by an annual event.

Often in the first year of a contract, GCS has to rely on the results and schedules left by our predecessor. The challenges from working off someone else’s results are numerous. Since we often have to rectify issues like high wait times and low staffing, the old data is not always helpful. Often there are new employees, different schedules or simply the data was not completely accurate, on point or even recorded at all.

After assuming new business the data going forward is our own and often includes lower wait times, minimal queues and other customer service feats our team has proven they can accomplished. Our confidence in accurate schedules soars because we are relying on our own systems and procedures. The employees benefit from smoother schedules and the clients for lower costs.

A year’s worth of experience with dozens of special events lends itself to more confidence in a job well done. And as far as the Puerto Rican celebration goes, nos podrá estar bailando en las calles a ese ritmo puertorriqueño.*

In today’s society, safety and effective communication in emergency situations is proving to be more and more important. Intercede Services, a software company owned by a father of a GCS employee, has recently launched a new emergency incident reporting technology called iAlert. The product was launched in response to growing concerns regarding the safety of school children, teachers, hospital employees, construction workers and many more individuals who are exposed to dangerous situations and elements due to the nature or location of their work.

iAlert was designed to promote effective communication for 3 common types of safety incidents: crisis events, emergency events, and urgent events. iAlert allows users to instantly notify multiple responders of an emergency incident allowing for fast and efficient communication to mitigate critical situations and promote safety and compliance. Pre-determined responders are able to react immediately based on the unique geo-location technology used by iAlert.

This mobile app is a very cost effective and customizable safety tool. It is compatible with iPhone technology and available through a subscription package with Intercede Services.

Our company, Global Contact Services (GCS), attended the SOCAP conference held here in North Carolina last month. The event featured many keynote speakers, workshops, discussions and presentations focused on customer care professionals. One of the guest speakers at the event, Garrison Wynn, a noted motivational speaker and humorist, had a very insightful presentation that struck many chords with me. His area of expertise was effective communication between generations. As a young intern at GCS and member of Generation Z, I often feel that my contributions in the workforce are not taken as seriously as someone with more seniority. I found many points from Mr. Wynn’s presentation that were especially meaningful to me.

The first and most important thing in cross generational communication is trust. This includes the oft overlooked skill of listening. One can’t feel trusted by someone else if they are not listened to and understood. Along the same lines, it is the responsibility of the communicator to be clear in delivering the message. Ideas need to be outlined in a way that both parties can understand as to avoid blame. Mr. Wynn noted that the other party need not always agree with the points the communicator makes. Disagreement is often a healthy challenge because it makes the communicator think critically about their views. In a disagreement, however, it is important not to put the other person down or attack them personally. Agreement is also a factor important to communication. Both parties need to be willing to compromise to come to a conclusion. Agreement is often conducive to brainstorming and coming up with even better ideas that you may not have been able to come to on your own. Taking a good idea and making it better often comes out of agreement that transcends cross generational communication.

The presentation at SOCAP also highlighted the importance of praise. People in younger generations, such as my own, are more apt to respond positively to feedback and praise from veterans in the industry. If you make others feel valuable, you will in turn seem more valuable to them.

In the world of constant communication we live in, it is difficult to focus and listen to what is being said. We place a high value on ‘getting the point across’ in as few characters as possible. When it comes to communicating across generations, I think it is important to go back to the basics to make sure your message is understood.

The other day, I read an article that claimed “omni-channel” is just a buzzword word that means the same thing as “multi-channel.” I couldn’t disagree more. Omni-channel contact centers represent a major step in the evolution of customer service.

Look at the history of customer contact. The very first call centers were just that: call centers. They had one channel: the telephone. In other words, they were “uni-channel.” In the 90s, when email entered the picture, contact centers added that to their available ways of communicating with customers, and they became “dual-channel.” Unfortunately, the right hand often had no idea what the left hand was doing, and the customer sometimes felt as if he or she was communicating with two different companies. Once chat was added to the mix, the first true “multi-channel” customer service centers were born, but the customer experience was not necessarily any better.

Fast forward to the present, and you have people talking about the next step in this evolution: “omni-channel.” To understand the difference between multi-channel and omni-channel, it helps to look at the words themselves. “Multi” comes from the Latin word meaning “more than one, or many.” “Omni,” on the other hand, comes from the Latin word meaning “every, all or whole.”

Capture and integrate all customer touchpoints, regardless of channel, for a seamless customer experience, and

Present a 360-degree view of the whole customer.

1. Leverage every available channel

Omni-channel looks beyond the big three: voice, email and chat. SMS, social media and mobile apps are playing an increasing role in how customers want – and expect – to get service and support. Take social media, for example. According to Gleanster Research, 73% of the top performing companies said their number one reason for investing in social media is not marketing, but customer service. With 71% of online adults using Facebook and 18% using Twitter, it makes sense.

2. Capture and integrate all customer touch points, regardless of channel, for a seamless customer experience

Omni-channel is not just about offering the customer more of the channels they want to use. It’s also about creating an integrated, seamless customer experience. “Multi” means many. And the problem with the old paradigm of multi-channel is that customers were having many different experiences when they reached out to the same company because they were handled by different agents who could not see the entire customer interaction. The goal of omni-channel is to present one consistent, continuous conversation and to do that, the agent and the organization needs to know where, when and what has transpired with a given customer.

3. Present a 360 degree view of the whole customer

And what makes that conversation satisfying for the customer is that, regardless of the channel they use or the agent they reach, they feel recognized and remembered. Because the customer is able to use whatever channel they are comfortable using, and because the agent has access to every interaction, the customer receives unparalleled support with a personal touch.

With customers expecting to use a wide range of channels – and getting more and more accustomed to a seamless, integrated customer experience – can you afford to stay stuck in the world of multi-channel?

If you have been thinking about omni-channel but don’t know where to begin, then we should talk. Our experts at Global Contact Services (GCS) will be happy to discuss your situation and offer guidance.

Global Contact Services (GCS) is staying very aggressive in putting themselves top of mind and seeking new opportunities in the contact center solutions marketplace.

Externally, the GCS sales and marketing team is spending a considerable amount of time introducing GCS to purchasers of contact center outsourced services and advisory services, which has driven our internal mantra of “If we go, we show.”

We also hosted a booth at the recently held SOCAP conference in Charlotte, NC. SOCAP is an association of customer service professionals mainly in consumer products and consumer services roles. GCS joined IBTTA, an association that includes electronic highway, bridge and tunnel tolling services, like EZ-Pass.

Additionally, we held a booth at the Government Procurement Conference that showcased many of departments of the US government in search of suitable private sector partnerships. GCS met with back office transaction services and consulting project buyers from departments in Energy, Medicare, the postal service and Social Security.

Our website continues to receive updates enhancing our positioning and messaging, providing resources for public and private organizations to reference as part of their contact center purchasing and improvement process. Please visit the blog on our website for our latest content.

If we go, we show. Often, contractors like us attend conferences and walk the aisles passing out business cards. Whenever we attend a trade show we take our banners, brochures, give aways and secure a sizeable booth space to ensure attendees remember us. If we go, we show.

As a first time exhibitor, GCS’ was able to meet and converse with many customer-driven organization made up of vice presidents, directors, managers and supervisors of customer care and customer affairs professionals. Their mission is to develop successful business strategies in the customer care arena through the use of various educational tools and networking opportunities the organization offers.

GCS attendees of SOCAP’s 2014 Symposium benefited from an innovative new conference feature, Roundtable 3.0 in which participants interacted with each other around certain topics and then attended a keynote discussion. Attendees discovered areas including key messaging to retain customers, industry trends and technology, the next evolution of customer experience, and many more.

George Simons, Vice President of Marketing for GCS Agents, represented the company with a booth at the event. “As you would expect at a customer service conference, I met a lot of friendly people. We had numerous open and helpful conversations around the customer care industry and ways to improve service delivery. It was fantastic to have so many like-minded individuals in one place. SOCAP is a wonderful organization and GCS is honored to be a part of it. We always learn as much as we share at most conferences and this Symposium was no different. It confirmed the continuing interest in improving multi-channel and omnichannel integration for the customer service agent and the need for better management team reporting. Those are two areas where our consulting team can help the center manager,” George said.

GCS is the premier service provider and advisory firm of professional business transaction processing services with a focus on the contact center environment. Please contact us to find out how we can streamline internal processes, improve customer engagement, and increase retention.